Sunday, September 27, 2009

Yom Kippur Kiddush

(N.B., I am not a rabbi, this is a theoretical construct, since odds are, it's not even said even in extremis, for which see below):

Never heard of such a thing?Well, good.Please God, we won’t have to use such a thing ad bias hagoel.The question only really comes up in context of extreme illness, where one really has to eat a normal diet (for those who even approve of this; most say you have to eat funny small amounts, widely spaced, rather than regular meals), or as in the famous story of R’ Yisrael Salanter, where the city is under threat of a plague and the local rabbi orders people to eat, so as to keep their strength up and not succumb to the plague.Only in such circumstances, it seems to me, would there even be a question of “do I say Kiddush over a Yom Kippur meal?”

Is there even an obligation of Kiddush in such a situation?Probably not.It depends whether the “takkanah of Kiddush” extends to Yom Kippur.On the one hand, it’s a holiday, and partakes of the holiness of Shabbat, so perhaps the Shabbat/Yom Tov obligation of Kiddush extends over to Yom Kippur.On the other hand, the takkanah, rabbinic decree, to say Kiddush only applies in situations where it is normal to eat a meal, i.e., not Yom Kippur.Perhas the doubt whether or not it’s even relevant to Yom Kippur creates a situation where “doubt in a rabbinic matter (which most blessings are) leads to a lenient ruling”, i.e., don’t say Kiddush, being lenient in the laws of blessings.

However, if one really were to say a Yom Kippur Kiddush, what would it look like?I’d like to present a possible reconstruction, based on the structure of the Yom Tov Kiddush, and based on the difference between Yom Tov and Rosh Hashanah kiddushes, and how they reflect the Amidahs of their respective days.

The opening would be the same, as it is always drawn from the first two paragraphs of the central blessing of the Yom Tov or Rosh Hashanah amidah, with suitable change for Yom Kippur:

I brought in the closing beracha, because that will become necessary – the closing beracha is similar in the Amidah and Kiddush for each of Yom Tov and Rosh Hashanah.

What pattern do we notice? After Vetaher libeinu l’avdecha b’emet, there are two clauses introducing the final Beracha, joined with “u”. In Yom Tov, the whole phrase is somewhat shuffled and shortened for Kiddush, while on Rosh Hashanah, the second clause is taken verbatim.Rosh Hashanah matches most closely, in that the first clause begins with “ki” and the second with “u” for both it and Yom Kippur.So let’s take that as our paradigm, and use the second clause from Yom Kippur:

Mibal’adecha ein lanu melech mocheil vesolei’ach

Which nicely captures the essence of what we’re praying for all day on Yom Kippur.

Finally, the closing beracha, taken from the closing phrase of the bracha in the Amidah:

Has anyone actually seen a Yom Kippur Kiddush, and would they know its provenance?

Gemar chatimah tovah, and may next (well, there isn’t time to train and isolate a Kohen Gadol for this one) Yom haKippurim truly be a Yom Ke’Purim, attending with Moshiach (well, he won’t be a kohen, will he?He’ll be attending like the rest of us) at the Beit haMikdash in the final redemption, bb”a.

A patient who must eat on Yom Kippur and will be eating bread ritually washes his hands up to the wrists. If he intends to eat two kzeisim of bread or more, he recites the blessing Al Netilas Yadayim. He doe NOT recite kiddush on bread (nor on wine) and he is also exempt from lechem mishneh. Many acharonim are of the opinion that he should not recite kiddush even if Yom Kippur is on Shabbos. However, Rav Akiva Eiger writes that perhaps he is obligated to recite kiddush on Shabbos.

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Now this makes sense since, if he's eating on YK, it's because of illness, not because of itzumo shel yom. You're not sitting down to eat because of YK so why make kiddush on it?

On the contrary, you're sitting down to eat on YK because you have a rabbino/medical requirement to eat on YK. So even if not directly as a requirement to eat on YK, it's still eating on YK by rabbinic decree. Since rabbinic forms of mitzvot tend to take the same bracha as d'oraita forms (e.g. shofar bigevulin, lulav), so too here.

("I saw you in the deli eating a sandwich" "You didn't say anything at the time, so I know I was doing so under rabbinic supervision!")

Surely the Torah obligation of kiddush is satisfied by prayer, just as it is on Shabbat. So there's only a rabbinic obligation of kiddush. I can't see why you would imagine that the rabbis instituted kiddush over wine on Yom Kippur when it is contrary to the actual sanctification of the day.

Actually, according to that reasoning it is all the more proper not to recite kiddush. After all, Yom Kippur isn't just like Yom Tov. For example, the rules of cooking and carrying are equivalent to Shabbos level restrictions, not Yom Tov ones. Thus we cannot compare one to the other. Furthermore, there is a requirement to eat on Shabbos and Yom Tov and to mekadesh the day before the first meal, hence kiddush b'makom se'udah. On Yom Kippur there is a requirement not to eat. Hence there is no reason for kiddush since the meal itself is not a requirement of the day.

While chazal did not create a bracha for kiddush on yom kippur...i believe it would go like this (unlike yours)--don't forget the nussach of the bracha after the haftarah:Baruch attah H’ elokeinu melech ha-olam